


Meowing your love

by themoonofwonderland



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: Confused boys, First Kiss, M/M, just a little little Aiden/Harvard, taking care of a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 22:10:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17170343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themoonofwonderland/pseuds/themoonofwonderland
Summary: Nick, Seiji and a cat.





	Meowing your love

« Meow »

Nick was sitting on the floor of his room, facing a little white cat. «Tell me all your secrets.»

The cat didn’t seem to be affected in any way by Nick’s attempt at extorting informations out of him and was bumping his head on the boy’s knees. Nick softened – he wasn’t going to win this anyway- and scratched the head of the ball of fur.

« I really hope you have a good explanation.» A voice said, coming from the door. Seiji. Nick raised his eyes to meet his roomate’s. They were the only two of the fencing club to have stayed at Kings Row during the break. But it didn’t meant they hanged out. Which meant Nick had been alone when he decided to go to the Fencing Team cabin. Alone when he found a cat there. Alone when he decided to bring said cat back to their room.

« He begged me to take him? »

« Nicholas. » For Seiji to use his name, he was serious enough.

« I wasn’t going to let him alone ! What if he starved ? »

Seiji opened his mouth to answer but the cat had went to him and was now looking at him with his great blue eyes. The boy squint at smal animal for a few seconds before ignoring him and going to his side of the room. Nicholas smiled. He knew that meant Seiji accepted – well, tolerated- his presence. He threw himself onto his bed, the cat following him. « We need to get him some food. »

« You need to get him some food. He’s your, temporarily, cat. Not mine. »

Nicholas ignored him. « Also, it needs a name. »

« Why? »

« To call him »

« Why? »

« Because! Don’t you have any ideas? »

« Call him zero »

Nick sticked his tongue to him. « I’m just gonna ask Bobby. »

He took his phone out and started typing : _‘‘Hey ! Bobby ! Good name for a male cat?’’_

Nick have had some experience with kittens once and could differentiate gender.

_‘’Ash! Or Kaltenecker!! You could name him Victor too’’._

_‘’BUT WHY ARE YOU ASKING? ‘’_

Nick snaped a quick picture of the cat and send it to his friend.

_‘’OH GOD! YOU HAVE A CAT? WHY? HOW?’’_

_‘’ALSO FORGOT MY PREVIOUS NAMES’’_

_‘’NAME HIM LAURENT. HE HAS A LAURENT FACE. ‘’_

Well, it was better than Kaltenecker thought Nick. He thanked Bobby and turned to Seiji. « Seiji! » He waited for his roomate to turn to him. « Meet Laurent! »

Seiji took his headphones from god knows where –he swore, these things appeared magically- as if to say he was done with any cat matter for the night. Possibly forever but Nick chose to be positive. He rose from his bed and went to the kitchen to try to find something for Laurent.

 

When he woke up the morning after, the warmth on his side had disapeared. He looked up, trying to see where Laurent had gone and felt a smile grow. He could distinctly see a white thing curled up in the middle of Seiji’s bed. He met his roomate in the Fencing salle and went to him.  
« It seems that Laurent likes you.» Nick wore a broad smile. Seiji let out a growl and went to the other side of the room. Laurent 1 Seiji’s determination 0.

\---

 

Over the next few days, they had reorganized their whole room around the cat. Cleaning anything that might be dangerous – this was much more of a challenge for Nick than Seiji-, setting some bowls with food and water and even making a bed with some blankets–even if Laurent moslty slept with Seiji. The other boy said it wasn’t his responsability but he still had spent his time redoing everthing he thought Nick was doing wrong. Despite everything he said, Seiji warmed up to Laurent thought Nicholas. He saw him petting him when Laurent curled up next to him at night and when he got back to the room this afternoon, he surprised Seiji complaining about Nick’s lack of cleaning to the small cat. He guess that the cold boy’s heart could be melted after all.

 

\----

Nick was laughing hard. Real hard. Laurent had decided to follow Seiji everywhere.  «Can’t you help me? » he asked more irritated by Nick laughing than Laurent.

« No »

He tried to escape by going to the Fencing Salle but Laurent followed him. And of course Nick followed the both of them. He managed to take a picture of Seiji facing Laurent, trying to intimidate him. He had decided that running away was not the right move and was trying something else. While Seiji was getting nowhere, Nick decided to send the picture to the Fencing groupchat with the caption « Explaining that you have to let mom go train.»

_Bobby : SO CUTE !!!!_

_Harvard : But? Where does it come from? Does the school knows?_

_Eugene : YAY !_

_Kally : What…_

_Tanner  Wait the image isn’t loading, what’s happening?_

_Aiden : Nick and Seiji adopted._

_Nick : A CAT_

_Eugene : What’s the name?_

_Nick : Laurent. I found him. And of course not the school doesn’t know._

_Tanner : You should’ve named him with a cool fencing name. Like Epee._

_Bobby : He doesn’t have a Epee face. He has a Laurent face._

_Kally : And where do you keep him ?_

_Nick : Wait, two seconds_

Seiji was asking him to ‘Please for god sake stop texting and take the cat so he could train’. Nick went, took Laurent in his arms and got back where he was sitting before, while Seiji could –finally- start training. He send a pic to the groupchat.

_Aiden : Aww you and your son watching your husband train. A lovely family._

Nick ignored him and answered Kally : _We keep him in the room._

_Harvard : Pray that the school, or coach, never finds out._

_Nick : Trust me, I am._

_Tanner : You said you found him. But is Seiji okay about it ?_

_Nick : I think he likes him. Not that he would say it. But yeah, at first he wasn’t on board but he went with it._

_Aiden : Of course he did._

_Nick : What’s that’s supposed to mean ?_

_Aiden : We all know the school prodigy wouldn’t say no to you._

_Harvard : Aiden…_

_Aiden : Just saying_

Nick bit his lips. He looked up to watch Seiji doing drills and wondered if it was true. He was determined to ask Aiden but the conversation was already moving on and he let it drop.

 

\---

Laurent was sleeping when Nicholas and Seiji left that morning which meant they could properly train. They had started helping each others, pointing things out. It was moslty Seiji dropping disguised advices in insults toward Nicholas lack of apparently everything. After some time, Nick went to his bag to drink some water and saw that he got one message. It was from Harvard.

_Harvard : So what’s your plan, for the school cleaning lady?_

_Nick : What?_

_Harvard : You know, she comes once a week. It’s today. How are you going to do with Laurent?_

Panic slowly rose inside Nick. They hadn't thought of anything. « SEIJI! » he called.

« What? »

« The cleaning lady. »

They looked at each other and bolted toward their room. Bad new : The lady was already there. Good new : She was next door. They ran to their room as she was getting out of the other one. They entered the room. Getting Laurent out of there was the first priority. Good new : He was nowhere in sight. Bad new : He was nowhere in sight. They didn’t have time to freak out because the lady was entering their room. Nick grabbed the food and water bowl and was ready to leave but it was too late. She looked at them very suspiciously « What’s that for? » she asked.

« I… I like to drink and eat from…bowls.» Nick smiled, brought one to his mouth and forced himself to take a sip « Yum. »

Seiji was looking at him as if a second head had grew from his neck. The lady shrugged as his to say ‘I’ve seen worse’.

They left the room. « Wow. That was close. » started Nick.

« Where is he? Where is Laurent? » Nick could sense a worry in his voice. And that’s when the thought fully strucked him. They'd lost him. He couldn’t have gone too far but how where they supposed to find a cat in the school ?

They went looking into the kitchen first, even  if Nick said that of course he was feeding Laurent perfectly well and he was never hungry, but Seiji wanted to check. Having no sucess, they looked in the hall, the bathrooms, even some classrooms but no traces of Laurent. That’s when Nick got an idea.

«I know where he is! Follow me!» Nick run back to the Fencing salle. Inside, they could hear a meowing. As they entered, Laurent came trotting towards them, tail high, « LAURENT » they cried.

Nick noticed the sigh of relief that Seiji let out. « You were worried about him. »

« I was not. »

« You were. » Nick was smiling. He kneeled down to pet Laurent’s head.

« I was only worried that someone would find him and that we would be in trouble. » But he was kneeling as well and as Laurent bumped his head on him, Seiji was smiling. Nick sat down, enjoying this sight. A bip from his phone broke the moment. A message from Harvard : _‘’You forgot, right?’’_

\---

Even if they tought that the cleaning lady was unfazed by Nick’s weird’s habits, she really was suspicious. Nick blamed Seiji for not grabbing Laurent’s made-up bed when they got out. Seiji just blamed Nick.  But because of this first incident, she was determined to discovered what they were up to. In the next fews days, they had a few close calls, due mostly to the amount of hair that was scattered all around the room. The worst one was when she heard a noise. Nick now meowed each time he saw her.

 

Laurent was not the only one Seiji started warming up too. The boy was much more open to Nick than before. And Nick didn’t know what to think of it. The more it happened, the more he paid attention, looked at Seiji, noticed his smile as he was making some sarcastic comment at him, or saw the blush on his cheeks when they accidently brushed hands. Nick remembered his red face when he had brought back biscuits for him one night as he went to the kitchen for Laurent. They started training together more, and also having actual conversations. They had stayed up late tonight talking about fencing and to Nick’s surprise, it had been really fun. Now, laying on his bed, Nick was thinking about how it will be after the end of the break. For Laurent. They would have class and training, how were they going to take care of the small cat? Sure, everybody would give them a hand but he wasn’t sure they could keep Laurent a secret for long. And what would happen then? Nick was also worried about something else. He fell asleep thinking with a dread, that maybe Seiji and him would go back to the same relation as before.

 

\---

 

It was the last weekend of the break, in the afternoon. Nick was playing with Laurent while Seiji was at his desk, probably doing homework. Suddenly, they heard a familar voice coming from outside the room. The cleaning lady. Someone was chatting with her. The two boys looked at each other in panic and without saying a word, they both got up. Nicholas took Laurent as Seiji was opening the window of their room. Laurent liked to stay on the windowsill and they both knew it was the perfect hiding place right now. Seiji closed the curtains the second the cleaning lady opened their door and they stood there, in front of the obscured window.

« What are you doing? » asked the lady with suspicion, entering the room.

Quick. Think quick. She would want to see the window and he didn’t know how they could make her believe that a cat would – coincidentally- be on their windowsill. Before he could stop himself, or even understand what was happening, Nick put his hands on Seiji’s waist and pulled him closer.

« Kissing.» he heard himself said. The lady’s eyes widened. Seiji him, was as stiff as a stick. And they were all three, bright red.

« Well… I guess I should l should leave you alone then… » She stepped backward, appearing to have completly forgot about what she was here for. And then, she was gone, letting Seiji and Nicholas alone. Nick realized they were still in each others arms and quickly pulled away. He could feel his face burning. Why did he do that? He couldn’t think about why it had been its first instinct – and certainly not about how well his hands had fit on the other boy’s waist. Not right now. In this moment, Nick was invaded by fear, waiting for Seiji’s reaction. What was he going to say? He didn’t ask him, he just acted. Nick braced himself, waiting for the flow of disgust and anger to swallow him. But nothing came. And by nothing he meant nothing. Seiji had barely moved and was staring blankly in front of him. He only did move when Laurent started scratching at the window to get inside. He then went to his desk and sat down. A few seconds after, he seemed to have changed his mind because he was getting up.        
« I’m going to practice. » Nick nodded, not realizing right away that Seiji wasn’t looking at him and therefore couldn’t see him. Nicholas let out a sigh. He needed advices.

 

Going to Aiden was probably not the best idea, thought Nicholas. He was waiting akwardly in the corridor for the blond and some guy to part way. Unfortunately, Aiden was the only one who came back today from the break, and not tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning as everyone else. Some family stuff he said. Aiden winked at the red haired boy who left looking smitten and wobbling on his legs. Nicholas entered the room, his face red with embarassment. How was Harvard dealing with this?

« So you’ve wanted to talk to me? Do you want advices?»

« Actually... yes »  
Aiden raised an eyebrow at him. « For… that? » he asked, gesturing between himself and the corridor where the ginger left.

« No ! I mean, not with him. But… » his voice failed him. He felt anxious about admitting why he was here. Realization suddenly appeared upon Aiden’s face.  
« Oh ! It’s about Seiji, right? »

« Yes. »

« Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Finally. » Aiden sat down, laughing, swung one leg onto the other and leaned toward Nick. « So, you have a crush on our school prodigy and want my advice on how to be a lover boy? »

« I don’t have a crush on Seiji. »

When Aiden looked at him, a dubious look on his face, Nick thought again about how their relation had evolved since Laurent’s arrival. All the times their hands grazed or when they looked at each other without their usual hard look.  
« Well, let’s say I’m confused. And I think I fucked up. »

Aiden gave him a look as if to say I’m not surprised. Nick try to not feel offended.            « You’re lucky I’m feeling generous tonight. I’m gonna be your gay guru. »

« Please don’t ever say that again. »

« What happened? »

« I told the cleaning lady we were kissing »

Aiden whistled « Already kissing, hum? »

« No! No! »

Aiden looked confused so Nick explained to him the whole situation. By the end of it, Aiden was laughing again.

« Oh boy, what a mess. But you don’t need to worry, I’m here to help you. He already likes you, I mean, I have eyes, but he probably doesn’t realize it. What you need to do is openly seduce him. »

Nick was ready to protest but the blond was already listing a series of step to follow.

« First, you enter the room, and walk up to him with a fierce determination.» Aiden was enjoying this way to much thought Nicholas.  
« Next, you take his chin into your hands, look him dead in the eyes and tell him the best compliment you can think of. Then walk always. You’ve got to create wanting you know. Also, if you can found a way for your shirt to show a little skin it would be perfect. »

Nick never felt so confused and out of place in his entire life. He could sense each slow seconds passing as Aiden unfolded his oddly detailed and organized plan. He clarified that, of course, he himself didn’t need it, but it always added some fun.

When Aiden took a long enough pause which Nick could safely interpret as the end - also at this point, he didn’t know what could possibly come after - he went toward the door.       
« Well...thanks I guess. Goodbye Aiden. »

«If you follow your guru's advives It will go perfectly! »  
 And then muttered to himself : « I need to make a bet with Harvard.» Nick wanted to response that his life was not a betting matter but Aiden was already too absorbed by his phone to notice anything. He had a real smile on his face while typing and Nick thought that maybe Aiden hasn’t been the right person to ask as he obviously wasn’t with the person he liked.

 

That night, he thought that maybe, he just needed to talk to Seiji. Explain everything to him. Apologize also. Unfortunatly, Seiji was still avoiding him the next day. He met him in the kitchen, for Laurent, but Seiji left before he could say anything. He apparently decided to train somewhere else because Nick didn’t see him in the Fencing salle either. He finally found him in their room. When he saw Nick entering, Seiji stood up to leave but Nick grabbed his arm.

« Seiji…we need to talk. »

« We don’t. »

« Look, I’m sorry, okay? I should have never done that. I'm going to… keep my distance. »

« So that’s how it’s gonna be? » The cold look that Seiji gave him froze Nicholas. He seemed almost…hurt. Nicholas wanted to say that he didn’t want that because…he liked him. But his throat was dry and nothing came out of his mouth.

So Nicholas did the worst thing he could do. Because for some reasons his mind went completely blank and the only thing left were Aiden's advices.

He closed some of the distance between them, lifting one shoulder so a small amount of skin was revealed just above his jeans. And he probably looked terribly ridiculous. His hand went up to lightly touch Seiji's cheeks before descending toward his chin. But Seiji slaped his hands.

« What are you doing? Are you just gonna play with me?»

His voice broke. The pain that Nick felt made him realize that honesty was the best option here.

« No. » he said. He was very calm. Very sure. This new softeness startled Seiji. He looked at Nick as if he knew he was genuine. That’s why, when Nick took Seiji’s head between his hands and leaned down to kissed his lips, he didn’t reject him. Their mouths met and it was akward but good. Full of the unsaid things, of all the brushes of their hands and redness of their skins. Because Seiji’s mouth tasted like victory, and rivalry, like the sound of his laugh and the murmur of their talk. It felt like cat warmth and had the flavor of crispy biscuits. It was sweet and short but they were out of breath. They looked at each other and Nick leaned down to kiss Seiji again.

 

\---  
  
They could heard everybody in the corridor, getting their suitcases into their room, chatting about vacations. Bobby was inside their room in a matter of seconds after he arrived and immediatly went for Laurent. Behind him were most of their friends, wanting to meet the new unofficial member of the club as well. Nick was laughing as Bobby was playing with Laurent, who seemed pleased. But when he looked at Seiji, he saw that the dark haired boy wasn’t smiling. Nick turned to see what he was looking at and saw Coach William standing next to the entrance.

« I heard there was someone to meet in this room. »  
Nick could easily say these were some of scariest words he'd ever heard. But Coach Williams smiled and with this and Seiji next to him, Nicholas knew that everything will be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello <3 This is for @hamilcake on tumblr for the 2018 Fence Secret Santa ! I really hope you liked it ! I apologize if there are any mistakes, English is not my first language !


End file.
